For upcoming media policy events, see http://www.benton.org/calendar.htm
Communications-related Headlines is a free online news summary service
provided by the Benton Foundation (www.benton.org). Posted Monday through
Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments,
policy issues, and other related news events. Headlines are compiled by
Kevin Taglang (headlines( at )benton.org) -- we welcome your comments.
BROADCASTING
F-Word Fight Isn't Over Fei, Fi, Fo or Fum
Howard's End
Crackdown: The FCC's Battle Against Indecency
Broadcast Networks Join to Battle Cable
QUICK HITS
Time Warner Lets Road Runner, AOL Cooperate
California Votes Against Diebold
EU to Step Up Internet Safety for Children
Police Seize Computers in Global Piracy Crackdown
DTV Coalition Pushes Satellite HDTV
BOOK REVIEWS
The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First
Century
The Creation of the Media
BROADCASTING
F-WORD FIGHT ISN'T OVER FEI, FI, FO OR FUM
Why is there so much indecency in American media today? Henninger argues,
"Having reached the pot of mud at the end of TV's lucrative rainbow,
desperate writers and producers are doing toilet humor for laughs and lots
of sex to keep viewers' hands off [TV] remotes." Broadcast and cable
networks slip "f-words and f-scenes" to hold viewers attention and instead
of creating investing in quality content to retain audiences. Henninger
concludes: As to the "decency" police, the very notion is quaint. Decency
died years ago and isn't coming back. The standards of the American people
have been so beaten down that no public groundswell is likely unless
something is really over the top. The argument now is over a social
consensus on acceptable in-decency. Not being able to say "f------
brilliant" in front of 30 million people is a small price to pay to keep
the gravy trains running.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Daniel Henninger]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108267616281391409,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
HOWARD'S END
This editorial asks 'Why all the fuss over indecency?' Because "members of
Congress understand the American public has had it with the increasing
coarsening of our television and radio." Because telling people to just
turn off what they don't like is not a sufficient answer. Because implicit
in that flip advice is the "arrogant assumption that people getting rich
off this garbage have no responsibility for what they put out." The reality
is that indecency, once "the exclusive province of seedy men in trench
coats operating in the outskirts of town," is now big business with
commercial backing. There ought to be real business consequences for what
they are doing, the editorial concludes."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Editorial Staff]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108267587597491391,00.html?mod=todays...
(requires subscription)
CRACKDOWN: THE FCC'S BATTLE AGAINST INDECENCY
For those with access to the Wall Street Journal online, an interactive
overview of the indecency debate and links to the artists and material
under fire.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal]
http://online.wsj.com/documents/info-fcc04.html?printVersion=true
(requires subscription)
BROADCAST NETWORKS JOIN TO BATTLE CABLE
Since advertising drives broadcast and cable TV industries, here's an
article about how broadcast networks are teaming up to win a greater share
of "upfront" ad sales next month. Jon Nesvig, president for sales at Fox,
which is majority owned by the News Corporation, said, "This is the time,
with all of us in broadcast TV taking the brunt of the charges, whether
it's from cable guys or syndicators or other people, to tell our side of
the story." Broadcasters' message is that even the top rated cable networks
come no where close to delivering an audience of even poorly-rated network
programming. There's also new pressure from ad agencies and marketers to
slow the rate of soaring prices for ad time. Advertisers are meeting
Thursday to discuss ways to change the network upfront sales process that
could ease pressure to pay more for ads.
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Nat Ives]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/23/business/media/23adco.html
(requires registration)
QUICK HITS
TIME WARNER LETS ROAD RUNNER, AOL COOPERATE
Is this what Open Network advocates are calling for. Parent company Time
Warner has decided that it is better that high-speed Internet service Road
Runner not compete with America Online. AOL now will promote to its
subscribers Road Runner's high-speed Internet connections, while Road
Runner will offer its customers a chance to sample many of AOL's high-speed
offerings. Each will win commissions for sales they generate for the other.
They will also jointly launch a video-on-demand channel, called "My MC,"
which allows viewers to choose from a variety of music-video clips, many of
them from AOL's exclusive archive of interviews and recording sessions with
musicians. "It is mildly positive. It is not a barn burner," said Jupiter
Research analyst David Card in the Washington Post. "The big symbolic thing
would be if there was no such thing as Road Runner, and the AOL Welcome
Screen is what you got if you were a Time Warner high-speed cable subscriber."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin at julia.angwin( at )wsj.com ]
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108267160592591196,00.html?mod=e%2Dco...
(requires subscription)
WP: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34986-2004Apr22.html
CALIFORNIA VOTES AGAINST DIEBOLD
California election officials on Thursday recommended banning some Diebold
Election Systems voting machines and referred an investigation into the
company to the attorney general for possible civil and criminal sanctions.
In a second day of hearings, Diebold President Bob Urosevich admitted that
the company's errors had prevented some Californians from voting.
[SOURCE: C-Net|News.com, AUTHOR: Paul Festa]
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5197870.html?tag=nefd.top
See lots more coverage in the San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/8499874.htm
EU TO STEP UP INTERNET SAFETY FOR CHILDREN
A survey, by EU Safety, Awareness, Facts and Tools, a cross-European
project to promote the safe use of the Internet, found 46% of children in
northern Europe who chat on the Internet say someone has asked to meet them
and that 14% had actually done so. In response, EU communications
ministers are launching a $59.4 million plan to increase the use of
filtering technology and public hotlines to combat illegal Internet content.
[SOURCE: Reuters]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BNCIGKXDQLNEYCRBAEOC...
POLICE SEIZE COMPUTERS IN GLOBAL PIRACY CRACKDOWN
Searches were also conducted in Britain, Germany, France, Israel,
Singapore, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Hungary, Sweden and 27 US
states resulting in the seizure of 200 computers containing hundreds of
thousands of illegally copied works worth at least $50 million. "We have
moved aggressively to strike at the very core of the international online
piracy world," Attorney General John Ashcroft said. The target was covert
"warez" groups that distribute computer games and other works before they
are officially released. The groups are made up of tech-savvy hackers and
industry insiders.
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Andy Sullivan]
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=RV41RNGFNKU0SCRBAEKS...
WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108266871383091112,00.html?mod=todays...
DTV COALITION PUSHES SATELLITE HDTV
American's For Taxpayer Reform, Media Access Project, Frontiers of Freedom,
EchoStar, and Public Knowledge have joined to form the Digital Transition
Coalition, working together to push for policies that advance: 1)
availability of network DTV signals nationwide (it suggests satellite
delivery might move things along); 2) return of the analog spectrum by Dec.
31, 2006 and 3) redeployment of some analog spectrum to public safety use
and the rest auctioned no later than Dec. 31, 2007. There's much more
information about the coalition's efforts available at
http://www.iwantmyhdtv.com/iwanthdtv/index.jsp -- you can even learn what
digital TV signals are available in your area.
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA412203?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
BOOK REVIEWS
The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First
Century
THE PROBLEM OF THE MEDIA: U.S. COMMUNICATION POLITICS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST
CENTURY
Robert McChesney's new book identifies and debunks eight myths about the US
media. 1) The media do not matter too much -- they merely reflect reality
rather than shape it. 2) The corporate, commercial media system is
"natural," the intent of the Founding Fathers, and the logical outgrowth of
democracy. 3) Debates concerning media policy in the US have accurately
reflected the range of public opinion and public interests. 4) Commercial
media unquestionably provide the highest quality journalism -- the caliber
of journalism a democracy necessitates for informed self-government. 5) The
news media in the US today have a "left-wing"bias. 6) Commercial media, due
to competitive pressure for profit, "give the people what they want" -- so
the only policy option is to unleash the market. 7) Technologies determine
the nature of media. 8) No alternative to the status quo will improve
matters. McChesney also recaps the efforts in 2003 to stall the FCC's
relaxation of media ownership rules.
THE CREATION OF THE MEDIA
In this sweeping history, Paul Starr shows how politics created our media
world, from the emergence of the first newspapers and postal systems in
early modern Europe and colonial America to the rise of the mass press,
telecommunications, motion pictures, and broadcasting in the twentieth
century. Critical choices about freedom of expression, ownership of media,
the architecture of networks, secrecy, privacy, and intellectual property
have made the modern media as much a political as a technological
invention. The American Revolution, Starr argues, set the United States off
on a path of development in communications that diverged sharply from
patterns in Europe. By the early nineteenth century, when the United States
was neither a world power nor a primary center of scientific discovery, it
was already a leader in postal service, newspapers, and popular journalism,
then in development of telegraph and telephone networks, later in the whole
repertoire of mass media and entertainment. The rise of the media has
become the story of an American ascendancy-and an American dilemma. The
framework of communications established in the United States has proved to
be a source of economic growth, cultural influence, and even military
advantage for the country. But the media have also become a constellation
of power in their own right, upsetting the classical vision of the role of
the press in a democracy. The Creation of the Media not only presents the
media in a new way; it also puts American politics into a new perspective.
(from Amazom.com)
--------------------------------------------------------------
...and we are outta here. Have a great weekend.
--------------------------------------------------------------